Catriona

Tutoring Experience

I have several years of teaching experience, this includes assisting in classroom settings and public outreach/science engagement events, small group tuition of university students, and one-to-one tuition for a number of students across subjects ranging from computer science to maths.

Combined, these roles have given me experience teaching both face-to-face and online. I have taught a range of subjects included maths, physics, chemistry and computer science, from primary school to university level. I have enjoyed seeing my students improve their confidence in areas they are struggling with and enjoy passing on some of my enthusiasm for science as a whole.

Tutoring Approach

I find that student led lessons are often the most effective way to build a solid understanding of a topic. This can begin with specific topics that the student wants to improve upon, in which case we can work through any theoretical aspects that are not understood and go through example problems to reinforce their understanding.

In other cases, it can be useful to work through examples (or past paper questions if the purpose of the tuition is exam preparation) and use these to pinpoint what areas need more explanation. I believe that it is most important to understand the subject at its fundamental level, rather than learning a “pattern” or arbitrary set of rules to use to solve a problem. This approach enables students to apply their knowledge to questions that they have not seen before in a confident and efficient way. Most long-term tuition will involve a combination of these approaches!